812 research outputs found

    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum

    Rebuilding the Appalachian Economy From the Ground Up: Towards A Holistic Organizational Framework for Community and Economic Development in Rural Extractive Areas

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    Central Appalachia specifically and rural extractive areas more generally face some of the most challenging socio-economic realities in North America. Community-based organizations (CBOs) are an important tool for addressing these challenges. As governments intensify efforts to mitigate climate change, and as fossil-fuel industries contract, extracted communities are experiencing economic, cultural, and environmental upheaval. Many leaders call for a “just transition” away from fossil-fuels, which would make local extraction communities whole. However, achieving a truly just transition away from fossil fuels is extraordinarily challenging, and many extracted communities were never whole to begin with. I argue CBOs are the crucial vehicle through which effective community and economic development (CED) outcomes can materialize for distressed rural communities. Yet CBOs do not receive nearly enough funding, policy-focus, or high-level partnership. Technical assistance provided to CBOs is often ineffective, especially in rural settings. Evaluation systems for measuring rural CBO effectiveness are inadequate. My research is primarily geared toward practitioners and aspiring practitioners. Findings, program designs and evaluative structures put forward herein are based on experience with Coalfield Development, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization I founded in southern West Virginia in 2010. Coalfield Development has essentially served as my research field lab. This dissertation provides four sections detailing organizational capabilities which local CBOs can develop and implement towards the goal of a just transition and improved quality of life for their unique rural place. In doing so, support is needed from funders and policy-makers in order to succeed. Much better evaluative systems are needed, as well, which could improve resource allocation decisions in these greatly under-invested communities and could also improve organizational effectiveness. The four capabilities and corresponding sections of this dissertation are: capacity building for rural CBOs incubating and investing in employment social enterprises human development for people facing barriers to employment and community-based real-estate revitalization In this dissertation, I use mixed-methods to draw insights and best-practices from more than a decade of interventions through Coalfield Development including case studies, focus groups, surveys, cost-benefit-analyses, program designs and program evaluations. My research illustrates and articulates the value of all four capabilities, finding them each as essential components for CBOs working in extracted local economies. While this research is based in central Appalachia it is intended to be useful to practitioners, policymakers, funders, local leaders and researchers in other rural fossil-fuel communities throughout the world

    Contemporary research in minoritized and diaspora languages of Europe

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    Synopsis: This volume provides a collection of research reports on multilingualism and language contact ranging from Romance, to Germanic, Greco and Slavic languages in situations of contact and diaspora. Most of the contributions are empirically-oriented studies presenting first-hand data based on original fieldwork, and a few focus directly on the methodological issues in such research. Owing to the multifaceted nature of contact and diaspora phenomena (e.g. the intrinsic transnational essence of contact and diaspora, and the associated interplay between majority and minoritized languages and multilingual practices in different contact settings, contact-induced language change, and issues relating to convergence) the disciplinary scope is broad, and includes ethnography, qualitative and quantitative sociolinguistics, formal linguistics, descriptive linguistics, contact linguistics, historical linguistics, and language acquisition. Case studies are drawn from Italo-Romance varieties in the Americas, Spanish-Nahuatl contact, Castellano Andino, Greko/Griko in Southern Italy, Yiddish in Anglophone communities, Frisian in the Netherlands, Wymysiöryś in Poland, Sorbian in Germany, and Pomeranian and Zeelandic Flemish in Brazil

    A mixed methods examination of the antecedents of user self-disclosure on digital health platforms

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    Digital health platforms (DHPs) present the opportunity for individuals to manage their personal health more effectively through seeking and obtaining health advice. However, little is known about the factors that influence self-disclosure on these platforms and are therefore critical for their success. This research proposes that self-disclosure on a DHP is influenced by trust in health platforms (THP) and health information privacy concerns (HIPC) across different cultures and personalities. Using data from Ireland and the United States, it develops a framework that harnesses social exchange theory (SET) and social penetration theory (SPT) as a lens to understand self-disclosure on DHPs. It examines the factors that generate THP and HIPC. It then determines the influence of THP and HIPC on self-disclosure. Finally, the model offers a unique look at the role of personality traits and the influence they have on likelihood to self-disclose. A two-stage mixed-methods data collection approach was employed to explore these propositions. Quantitative surveys were used to collect data from 300 participants in Ireland and America. 20 qualitative research interviews were then conducted with Irish and American participants. The quantitative and qualitative findings were then integrated and evaluated in the context of the hypothesised relationships. The integrated findings show THP is the critical pathway to self-disclosure. THP is shaped by social influence, perceived reciprocity and privacy risk beliefs. HIPC is shown to reduce THP. Personality traits also influence self-disclosure. This study extends SET and SPT to a digital health platform context. The findings provide actionable insights, which can assist policy makers who wish to protect citizen health data and health technology vendors who seek to develop trustworthy platforms

    Selected Topics in Gravity, Field Theory and Quantum Mechanics

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    Quantum field theory has achieved some extraordinary successes over the past sixty years; however, it retains a set of challenging problems. It is not yet able to describe gravity in a mathematically consistent manner. CP violation remains unexplained. Grand unified theories have been eliminated by experiment, and a viable unification model has yet to replace them. Even the highly successful quantum chromodynamics, despite significant computational achievements, struggles to provide theoretical insight into the low-energy regime of quark physics, where the nature and structure of hadrons are determined. The only proposal for resolving the fine-tuning problem, low-energy supersymmetry, has been eliminated by results from the LHC. Since mathematics is the true and proper language for quantitative physical models, we expect new mathematical constructions to provide insight into physical phenomena and fresh approaches for building physical theories

    The Varieties of Contemplative Experiences and Practices

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    While the diverse contemplative techniques are employed across a plethora of traditions around the world, contemplative research over the years has not reflected this variety. Despite growing interest in research on meditation, studies in contemplative science have largely focused on a narrow selection of practices (e.g., mindfulness, compassion, etc.) and traditions (i.e. Buddhism, Transcendental Meditation etc.). By choosing this topic, we hope to broaden the scope of contemplative science
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